Customer Reviews

The Warren Witches (Charmed)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Warren Witches contains the following eight stories:

1) OLD FRIEND by Laura J. Burns (Inherit the Witch). While
dining at the Manor, Emily, Paige's college friend, reads
a spell from the Book of Shadows and disappears. Following
her trail, the sisters travel back in time to the 1920s and
discover Emily's secret.

2) THE CRUCIBLE by Micol Ostow (Changeling Places). The sisters
help a high school student tormented by classmates who are
spurred on by a demon of discord.

3) PATTY'S AWAKENING by Greg Elliot. 16 year old Patty, mother
of the Charmed Ones, contemplates giving up her powers,
marrying her boyfriend, and leading a normal life. Yet
visions of her future children in peril give her pause.
In my opinion the best story in the book.

4) SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW by Paul Ruditis (The Brewing
Storm). The sisters travel back in time to stop Prudence
Warren, Melinda's daughter, from giving up her powers.

5) PRECONCEIVED by Erica Pass. The sisters travel back in time
to save their teenage mother from a warlock.

6) WITCH TRAP by Cameron Dokey (Haunted by Desire, etc.)The
sisters- you guessed it- travel back in time to the gold-
rush era to save a woman from allegations of witchcraft.

7) OLD FAMILY RECIPE by Diana G. Gallagher(Dark Vengeance,etc.)
Piper unknowingly bakes bewitched apple pies for a
police bake sale- and her family.

8) FAMILY HISTORY by Laura J. Burns. An ancient demon attacks
the Warren Witches in several time periods simultaneously,
endangering the Charmed Ones' past, present, and future.

Overall, the stories focus on the same relatives- the sisters' mother, grandmother, Melinda Warren and her daughter, Aunt Brianna and the 1920s cousins. All of these are familiar to viewers of the show; no new ancestors are introduced. In some stories, the involvement of family members feels forced, and too many of the stories rely on time travel. Still, many of the stories provide a good read, and, if you can ignore story to story inconsistencies, Charmed fans will find something to enjoy in the Warren Witches.

This book just didn't have the show's signature sparkle. It was SUPPOSE to be about the Warren family, before the sisters!

PROS:

The few things that I liked about this book were the fact that Paige was able to meet Melinda Warren, in fact, Melinda's inclusion in and of itself was a major plus! I loved the episode, "The Witch Is Back," and I only wish that the show could've had more appearances by Melinda.

A bit of Paige's history was a nice thing to have, especially the part about her obsession with Twizzlers. If anyone remembers, Prue also had a love for Twizzlers (Andy said this in Season 1), and I thought that was another nice connection between Paige and Prue.

I really liked the inclusion of P. Russell and P. Baxter and her (P. Baxter's) use of her powers to slow down time. (In the world of the fans, whether Piper was able to actually freeze or just slow things down in her past life has always been a huge debate.)

The story that revolved around Penny and Patty was fabulous! I loved the detail, as well as Patty's struggle with being a witch. It was very believable and probably one of, if not the, best story in the entire book.

CONS:

There were just too many things that didn't add up and the consistent time travel throughout the book got old around the third time The Charmed Ones went back to the past. As well as Wyatt's display of magic in the past. Every fan of the show knows that without a spell or potion, you cannot possess magic when you haven't been born. So Wyatt using his powers in the past, let alone ORBING into the past, was completely unacceptable.

But I believe what bothered me most about this book was the fact that there was absolutely NO Prue! Prue was one of the hugest parts of the Halliwell line, the oldest of the Power of Three, the sister who died which allowed Paige to come in and finally allowed them to vanquish The Source because they had the ENTIRE family! I understand that the sisters couldn't summon Prue from the dead, but they could've had flashbacks of Prue. They refused to show Little Prue in Patty's visions, but they allowed Little Piper and Little Phoebe to be shown. Hell, we didn't even get to see P. Bowen (Prue's past life)! She was barely mentioned in the book! This is the biggest reason why I've given this book such a low score. The absence of the eldest Halliwell sister in any form, without so much as even an attempt at a reason, is completely unacceptable!

Any avid fan of the show could write a better book and not have such easily avoidable errors, inconsistent plots, and they could bring continuity to the storyline!

If the producers ever want to see a good book about "Charmed," I believe they'll need to hire one of us loyal fans who love to write about the show.

Sincerely,
~Camille May, A Fan For Life~

This short story collection was given the wrong title. For a title "The Warren Witches", it should be about various ancestor witches, from Melinda Warren to The Charmed Ones, not just stories about the 3 main characters. And there are too many stories which involved time-travel. At least, there was mention of the girls' main ancestors - their mother, Grams, the 1920s cousins, Melinda, Prudence and Charlotte Warren, and Aunt Brianna - all of them should be familiar with Charmed fans. What about the other Warren Witches? Please. Do let us know more about Prudence's daughter Cassandra Warren-Wentworth. Everyone knows Aunt Brianna as she was famous for defeating Lord Gabriel. As mentioned in "Family History", she said that she has 1 sister, who has gone to America. That sister happens to be Astrid Warren-Wentworth. Both Brianna and Astrid are the daughters of Cassandra. What about letting Charmed fans know more about these witches? And Astrid's three daughters - Laura, Helena and Grace Wentworth? Tell us about any magical disaster they faced, their lives as witches, and how they overcame evil. The Wentworth sisters, each had a daughter and they became the well-known 1920s cousins, P.Bowen, P.Baxter and P.Russell. And from then, you know how the Warren Line goes. Stories that have been passed down through generations, stories on each ancestor and most importantly, their fight against evil and protecting the innocents.

That is how the book should have been. Not time-travel stories about Piper, Phoebe and Paige. Although the only story with NO mention of the Charmed Ones was "Patty's Awakening", which in my opinion, the best story in the book.

Could have been better.

'The Warren Witches' is a book consisting of various authors of Charmed pooling together stories about the timeline and hsitory of magic as witches. When I first read the back cover I thought I would be able to read a few good stories about the other Charmed witches. I was massively disappointed. It was again, all about Piper, Phoebe and Paige. After a while it was really boring. Plus, the editor probably messed up because three-quarters of the 8 stories were all about the sisters going back in time to save some ancestor. Why not write it from the ancestors' view themselves? As well, the authors themselves run low on creative juices. Micol Ostow's spells don't rhyme, Paul Ruditis did not put the humor of 'The Brewing Storm' in 'Something Old, Something New', and Cameron Dokey's tale was once again draggy and long-winded. Only 'Patty's Awakening' by Greg Elliot, 'Old Friend' and 'Family History', both by Laura J. Burns were worth reading. The rest was like a free gift that is okay, but doesn't add to the overall color of the book.

I truly believe the book could have been written better. THe title "The Warren Witches" stirs up thoughts of stories with other ancestors, not just the main characters, Piper, phoebe and paige.

The only story WITHOUT mention of the power of 3 at all, was Patty's Awakening, by Greg Elliott. I enjoyed that story, but I found it a bit draggy, with nothing to keep you in suspense about.

The stories by Laura J.Burns, Old Friend and Family History, were good, as the stories were original and something different, rather than the usual demon-vanquishing tales. As for "Old friend", I liked it, it was an unique start to the beginning of a exciting story (that's what I thought), but the fact that Wyatt ORBED into the past w/out a spell of potion??? That's ridiculously impossible. Was Laura in a rush when she wrote than story? And the ending for it? Emily's history was changed!!! It was pretty abrupt.. As for "Family history" the fact that P.Russell was supposed to be killed by her cousins, P.Bowen and Baxter... My question is, how could P.Russell have woken Astarte up, when there was no mention of Astarte at all in the Charmed series? If P.Russell DID wake Astarte up in her regular timeline, why should she be killed by her cousins and not by Astarte, which will leave the timeline to be NOT messed up?

Micol Ostow's story, The Crucible, was a horrible story. Such a lame, confusing plot, suspense which leads to something which people might say, "That's it? I thought there was more to this!!" I read this story ONCE and that is it, as reading it a few more times can make me puke at how badly written this story was.

Something old, something new, was also quite cockamamy-ish, in the sense that the 3 witches went into the past to make Prudence Warren to realise how much her powers are to be needed or magic would have left the entire family, and became a story which was passed down for generations.... Confusing, not to mention silly, but the plot was a-okay when it came to suspense...

Witch Trap, like Old Friend, was also unique, but didnt quite make sense that much, though I was happy to read that Melinda Warren appeared to the girls when they were in the dire times.

Old family recipe had an interesting story line about Piper unknowingly tainted the apple pie, by a recipe written by Russell. But my only gripe about the story was its abrupt ending to the obsessions of Paige, Phoebe, Leo, Darryl, etc..

Preconceived was not bad... I enjoyed it, and was amazed at the girls' determination to save their mother's life and not mention anything about themselves to Grams..

If you ask me, 90% of the stories had abrupt endings which made you think a few times over what it meant... I expected more from this short-story collection though..

The book was excellent though not what I expected. I had been hoping for more of a tale of history of the girls whole line. Instead is was a series of great stories that did reveal more of the girls history just not as much as I wanted. It was a great read from finished to end. Anyone who reads the series will be more than satisfied!

i love Charmed so i was thrilled when i bought "the warren witches". but i was a bit disappointed in some of the stories. i thought i was going to discover more about the charmed ones' ancestors... WITHOUT piper, phoebe and paige. but over-all, it was a good book- especialy for charmed obbsessed fans... like me.

I have to say this book was quite enjoyable. My favorite stories in this book were Family History, Patty's awakening, and old friend. It was nice to see that Patty struggled with being a normal person versus being a witch. Piper went through the same trials and tribulations as a charmed one. Both wanted to give up their powers at one point. It was a nice touch to see that Patty did not share the same enthusiasm as Penny. I liked that she was able to get premonitions as phoebe is the only one ever mentioned in the series besides Melinda to have this power. It was only briefly stated in that 70s episode. I like how Prue is mentioned even if only slightly. We do see her past life P. Bowen in the 1920s briefly and in the future in Family history. I loved the old friend story line of the friend that has known the Halliwell line for about 80 years and still looks young. All in all the rest of the stories are okay a lot of time travel. I liked that Brianna whom we know was very powerful and could send a sword millions of miles away was not interested in being part of a charmed family. I give it two stars for its conversational style and easy to follow reads if you can ignore some inconsistencies such as powers working in the past before their born.

If, like me, your favourite episodes of Charmed were the ones that centred around the Halliwell family past and present, then this is the book for you. A collection of short stories that are about the Halliwell family, The Warren Witches recount the magical adventures of almost every Warren witch named in the show; Charlotte Warren, Melinda Warren, Prudence Warren, Great-great-aunt Brianna, P. Baxter, P. Russell, P. Johnston, Penelope Halliwell, Patricia Halliwell, Piper, Phoebe and Paige Halliwell, even Paige's future children and grandchildren. A must have book for every die-hard fan.

Still reading but almost done. I like the fact that Penny and Patty are featuring in a few of the stories and the girls are travelling back to help. But the theme of the stories are the same but different demons different vanquihing spell. Not much about them being women which is what i thought Charmed stories are about. still entertaining though.